FERNDALE, Calif. — A large earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 jolted the Northern California coastline near Eureka on Tuesday morning, causing violent shaking that pushed some homes from their foundations and power outages affecting tens of thousands of people.
The earthquake occurred around 2:34 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday with the epicenter reported to be just offshore of Humboldt County — sending shock waves that were felt as far away as Redding to the east and the San Francisco Bay Area to the south. The hardest hit area appeared to be around the town of Rio Dell, though damage was reported in several surrounding towns, including in Fortuna and Eureka, state and local officials said late Tuesday morning.
Two people died “as a result of medical emergencies occurring during and/or just following the earthquake,” the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office announced around midday Tuesday. No further details were released about where those people died, or the circumstances of their deaths.
The sheriff’s office also said 11 people had been injured, though the severity of their injuries was not immediately clear. State officials said earlier Tuesday that many injuries appeared to be minor and moderate across the quake zone.
The quake knocked out power to 71,850 customers, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. County officials said the utility sent a memo to them saying that power may be restored by the end of Tuesday, though a PG&E statement said that a damage assessment could take days.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that there was no tsunami warning or threat after the quake. That’s because the fault moved side to side — mitigating any risk of water being displaced in a way that would cause a tsunami, said Cynthia Pridmore, of the California Earthquake Authority during a news conference.
Cal Fire received about 70 calls for help immediately after the earthquake struck, moments after ceiling tiles rained down to the floor of the agency’s dispatch center, said Capt. Tran Beyea, a Cal Fire spokesman. Callers reported falls, lacerations, bruises and other injuries from falling objects. The agency also received a couple reports of collapsed structures, though crews were still working to determine the extent of the damage at those structures.
“It was a really strong shake,” said Earl Brizee, a former Walnut Creek resident who moved into his new Eureka home Monday, hours before the quake hit. “I really thought, ‘Oh God, I just bought this house, I just moved in and now it’s gonna collapse on me.' ”
Brizee said the earthquake awoke him from his sleep; when he tried to get out of his bed, the force of the quake kept him down. He said the quake shook water from his toilet onto the floor of his bathroom but that he otherwise did not find any immediate damage.
“I walked around with a flashlight and didn’t see anything,” he said. “But I’ve only been here less than a day.”
The quake appears to have been centered along the Gorda Plate — a piece of the Earth’s crust that exists between the North American and Pacific plates off the California coast. It’s an area that’s prone to dangerously powerful quakes — having experienced about 40 tremblors of magnitude 6 to 7 over the last century, said Pridmore, of the California Earthquake Authority.
About 80 aftershocks followed the quake, including a 4.6 magnitude shaker in the town of Rio Dell, several miles inland from the coast. That aftershock rumbled through Humboldt County five minutes after the 6.4 quake. Most aftershocks were primarily inland east of the original temblor.
Hours after the initial tremblor, the threat of more aftershocks remained as the Earth’s crust continued to settle. A 13% chance exists for another quake with a magnitude of 5.0 or larger over the next week, Pridmore said.
“People do need to be prepared — especially if they’re in weakened structures — to be mindful of where they are staying,” Pridmore said at a news conference.
Humboldt County officials said Rio Dell — a town with a population of 3,367, according to the 2021 census — shut down its water main because of cracked pipes.
Sue Long, the former mayor of Fortuna, who retired from the city council Monday, said the earthquake lasted so long that she found herself thinking, “Whoa, when is this going to actually stop?”
“I thought my house was going to come right off the foundation,” Long said. “This was a scary one. I grew up with earthquakes here, and most of the time I didn’t bother getting out of bed.”
Humboldt County officials said there was “widespread damage” to roads and homes, particularly in the Eel River Valley. A couple houses in Ferndale were off their foundations and several others had cracked walls and hanging rain gutters.
The 111-year-old Fernbridge historic bridge along Highway 211 was closed Tuesday morning after cracking in multiple places during the quake, said Tom Mattson, Humboldt County’s public works director. The bridge, which spans roughly a quarter mile over the Eel River, is a critical access point for the town of Ferndale. Even so, emergency crews were still cleared to cross the bridge and respond to people in need, a Caltrans official said.
By mid-Tuesday morning, Caltrans officials had issued a $6 million emergency order to hire a contractor make repairs as soon as possible. That contractor was expected to be at the site later Tuesday to begin work to first shore up the bridge for temporary use, then do permanent repairs.
Multiple other Humboldt County roads were closed — one from a gas leak, and others due to cracking in their pavement. The veterans hall in Fortuna was red-tagged while crews inspect it, Mattson added.
Public works crews were still inspecting 1,200 miles of roads throughout the county Tuesday. Still, Mattson thought initial damage surveys would be far worse.
“All in all, for how bad it was, so far it’s not as bad as we expected it to be,” said Mattson, who lives in Fortuna, about 12 miles from the quake’s epicenter. “It woke me up. It was shaking like crazy. I’ve been up here for many, many years and that’s the worst shaking I’ve ever felt.
He estimated the shaking lasted at least 30 seconds, “but it felt like forever.”
The ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System — which is co-operated by the USGS and covers the West Coast — buzzed 3 million people about 10 seconds before the rattling began, warning everyone to take shelter and beware of falling objects, said Mark Ghilarducci, the state’s Office of Emergency Services director. A USGS user map showed residents reported feeling only weak shaking in the Bay Area.
“The system did operate as we’d hoped and we’d been working to design,” Ghilarducci said.
“We’re happy that this one wasn’t as large as it could have been and we’ve seen in the past,” Ghilarducci said. “Still, we’ve seen this one resulting in damage.”
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(Mercury News staff writers Robert Salonga and Rick Hurd contributed to this report.)
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